Four years after the gruesome death of her husband, the colony’s figurehead, at the hands of Beasts–genetically-modified super-soldiers–Vashti meets another Beast under suspicious circumstances. In an era when a majority of the population is genetically modified to reduce aggressive tendencies, she takes wealthy offworlders hunting the dinosaur-like big game of Ubastis to get scientific samples and money for the colony. Vashti Loren is a very rare breed: a hunter. Needless to say, there are powerful political interests against this. But, fearful that the human race won’t be able to live on Ubastis for more than a century without ruining it like Earth, the scientist-colonists who study it have strictly limited their population to a few thousand and hardly dare touch the ecosystem outside their small cities. Humans have spread throughout the galaxy, searching for a new home, and they have found a potential paradise on the planet Ubastis. In the 24th century, Earth is so polluted as to be nearly uninhabitable. It wasn’t exactly that, but it was an enjoyable read that raised a lot of thought-provoking questions. I bought it because from the description, it looked like the closest new novel to the good, old-fashioned, “strange new worlds” sci-fi.

Since I had an empty reading list this summer while I was waiting for a couple of new titles to come out, I decided to try it for a change, and I liked what I found.Īrchangel is the first novel by sci-fi author Marguerite Reed and Book 1 of an anticipated series, The Chronicles of Ubastis. In fact, of the many book reviews I’ve written on this blog, I have never reviewed a book for which I knew neither the title nor the author by reputation before I read it. I can’t remember the last time I just picked up a book from a bookstore bookshelf without knowing anything about it besides what was on the back cover.

Archangel by Marguerite Reed